Boys and Girls in Space

On 6/20/06, Omar E. Vega wrote:
(...)
> By the way, Lucio, if you got information about the Native heritage
> of modern Brazil, both in genes and culture, please let me know.
(...)

Hi Omar,

I think that the classic work about the cultural and racial mix of
Brazil is still "The Masters and the Slaves" (the awkward English
translation of the original title "Casa Grande e Senzala" ;-), from
Gilberto Freyre. Link for a translation in English at Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0520056655/sr=8-1/qid50825897/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-9893086-6911902?%5Fencoding=UTF8
Link for a edition in the original Portuguese at a Brazilian
Amazon-equivalent:
http://www.livrariasaraiva.com.br/produto/produto.dll/detalhe?pro_id3861&ID8B80AC7D606140F010B0214

This book is over seventy years old but most of the reflections and
data there are still valid. However, many other studies were done
since then. For instance, in recent years some research groups have
been tracking DNA markers of the original races in the present heavily
mixed Brazilian population:
http://revistapesquisa.fapesp.br/index.php?s,3,907&aq=s (Link for
an article in Brazilian Portuguese. Since many of the written words
are quite similar to the equivalent ones in Spanish, though, I think
it will still be readable for you.) Unfortunately, as far as I know
there is no great book summarizing all those more recent studies - a
kind of modern equivalent of "Casa Grande e Senzala"...